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[av_heading heading=’ ‘BOBOLAHIN PA AKO’ Duterte shoots down meeting with Mabilog ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte is not keen on talking to Iloilo City’s Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog whom he has repeatedly accused of being a drug protector.
Late afternoon after the 55th anniversary celebration of Metrobank yesterday, Duterte took a swipe at Mabilog who had offered half of the P1-million bounty for the arrest of drug lord Richard Prevendido.
He believed Mabilog’s bounty on Prevendido was only meant to flatter him.
“Bobolahin pa ako ng putang ina. ‘Wag mo akong salsalin ng ganun. Ang tagal ko na sa gobyerno. Ililibing na nga ako e,” said the President.
Wanting to clear his name, Mabilog had long sought an audience with the President.
“The last time I checked, he was not open to (have a) conversation with Mabilog,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella in an earlier press briefing yesterday.
Prevendido was killed in a shootout with policemen in Iloilo City’s Jaro district Friday night last week.
“Bumilib lang ako sa kanya kasi matapang siya. Sabi niya bigyan niya daw ng P1 million ang taong magturo sa kanila, ang mga drug people,” said Duterte, sounding sarcastic.
The other half of the million-peso bounty for Prevendido’s neutralization was offered by the provincial government of Iloilo.
“Hindi ba kayo bumilib sa kanya na, ‘Bigyan ko kayo ng isang milyon kung mahanap ninyo ako,’” Duterte told journalists interviewing him.
Early last week, Abella said Duterte was willing to meet Mabilog after the city mayor said on national television he wanted to speak to the President and tried several times – but failed – to get an appointment. This was after the President announced on Aug. 28 the transfer to Iloilo City of Ozamiz City’s police chief, Chief Inspector Jovie Espenido.
“I am sure if he goes to the usual channels of appointment, the President will be willing to sit with him,” Abella said then.
Responding to the mayor, the President on Aug. 30 said, “Mabilog sent word that he wants to talk to me. I have some lifestyle check on him.” The following day, four operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation went to Mabilog’s residence in Molo, Iloilo City.
Yesterday, Abella defended the President from criticism over a remark on Sunday that Mabilog “escaped to Japan” and was “living luxuriously there.”
The mayor was indeed in Japan but he was attending a conference on disaster management, his city hall staff said.
“The President has his own understanding of the situation,” said Abella.
In several past speeches, the President had also mistakenly identified Mabilog as a relative of slain suspected drug Melvin Odicta Sr.
Odicta was shot to death in August last year in Malay, Aklan.
Duterte has “his own sources of information,” said Abella without elaborating.
The President has been increasingly critical of Mabilog. Among others, he compared the mayor’s house to a palace in an Aug. 30 speech then just this Sunday, while speaking to well-wishers of Cong. Karlo Nograles in Davao City about Malacañang Palace, said, “Mas gwapo pa ang balay ni Mayor Mabilog…Palasyo. Droga man na. Asa man siya’g kwarta? Ang iyang negosyo? (Mayor Mabilog’s house is more grandiose, a palace. It was because of drugs. Where else would he get the money from, his business?)”
In a statement on Aug. 30, Mabilog said, “I can assure the President not a single centavo of dirty money was spent for this home.”
“I have nothing to hide. My house, while often described as a palace, is not quite a palace. The land or compound on which our circa 1800s ancestral home stands was inherited and the house was built on a more or less 200-square meter portion. It is not as big as pictures would make it appear,” he added.
Addressing city government employees on Aug. 29, Mabilog denied links to illegal drugs either as protector, pusher or user.
“With God as my witness, I have never protected anyone, especially in illegal drugs. Never. I will never do that,” he said./PN
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